“I hope they don’t kill each other. Maybe they’ll find a way to make peace and become good friends.”
Tom’s eyebrows quirked, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “Let’s hope so.”
For another long and lovely moment, they sat there in Tom’s garden, enjoying the summer sunshine and finishing their coffees. Carole thought she could easily close her eyes and doze off in the garden chair, thanks to how comfortable she felt beneath the sun’s warmth and in Tom’s company.
Deciding that falling asleep in the man’s garden was not a good move, she blinked and stretched and ate the last bite of her sugary doughnut.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” she said, pulling her phone from her pocket. “My sister took a bunch of photos at the wedding yesterday and sent through the ones she snapped of us. Some of them are pretty good. Want to see them?”
“I’d love to.”
Tom scooted his chair closer to Carole’s while she swiped at her phone screen to find the photos she was after. She’d taken dozens of shots at the wedding, especially of her sweet little nieces looking so gorgeous in their flower girl dresses, as well as plenty of candid pictures of her parents, her sister and brother-in-law, the wedding party and the fun at the reception.
She’d also captured some great selfies of her and Tom throughout the day. Angling the phone so Tom could see the screen, she swiped through the selection.
“Here are some I took of us.”
“Those are good selfies,” he said. “Send me a couple of them, will you?”
Carole nodded. “And here are the ones my sister took of us, dancing together at the reception.”
Tom smiled as he studied the photos. Jane had snapped a couple of brilliant shots of Tom twirling Carole around the dancefloor, both of them laughing and enjoying the fun. In another shot, they were performing an over-the-top dip towards the camera, the two of them all smiles.
“We look like we’ve mastered those dance moves,” Tom said.
Carole laughed and swiped through the rest of the shots Jane had sent her. It was only when she reached the last one that she realised she hadn’t noticed it first time around when she’d flicked through the shared folder where Jane had added the images.
The final photo showed Carole and Tom dancing close together in each other’s arm, their gazes locked, their expressions soft. It was, she realised, a photo captured when they’d been slow dancing to the love song the band had played.
The intimacy of the photo caught her by surprise. Heat flushed her cheeks as Tom continued looking at the image, his closeness to her suddenly making the skin on her arms tingle with awareness.
His gaze flicked up from the phone screen. Beneath the brilliant summer sunshine, his eyes were flecked with burning gold, sparkling in a pool of warm caramel. One long delicious moment spun out between them as their gazes locked and Carole imagined dipping her mouth towards his and surrendering to a kiss that would taste of chocolate cookie and summer heat.
Carole blinked first, breaking the spell as she jumped to her feet and thrust her phone into her jeans pocket.
“So, they’re great photos, yeah?” she said, a little breathlessly. “I’ll, uh, send a few of them to you.”
“Great. Super.” Tom jumped up too, a mixture of surprise and confusion swimming in his expression. “That, uh, that sounds great.”
“I should go. I’ve got a million things to do before I’m back at work tomorrow.”
“Oh yeah, me too.”
“The weekend just vanishes when you’ve got a wedding to go to, and suddenly it’s Sunday afternoon and you’re playing catch-up.”
“Exactly.” Tom grabbed the mugs from the table. “Still, it was a great wedding. Well, it was a great wedding until your dad got knocked over and hurt but, well, you know what I mean.”
“I do know what you mean. You’re right, it was a great wedding.”
They shared a smile and Carole turned to leave before she said—or did—something she would regret. When Tom opened the front door for her, she barrelled through it like a shot.
“See you on Thursday for passable lasagne,” Tom said with a grin.
The pulsing heat that had passed between them as they’d looked at that photo of them dancing together had made her completely forget about the dinner invitation she’d extended.
“Oh sure, see you Thursday. Seven o’clock okay?”
“Sounds good to me.”
